US President George W. Bush issued a new warning to regional archfoe Iran on Wednesday as he began a Middle East tour under the shadow of a weekend naval face-off between the two countries. (AFP Wednesday 9th January 2008)Bush threatened Iran with "serious consequences" if it attacked US warships, saying "all options" were on the table to protect US assets after Sunday's standoff in the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
Speaking in Jerusalem after talks with Israeli leaders, Bush also said that he remained convinced like them that Iran's nuclear programme made it a threat to world peace, despite a recent US intelligent report that said Tehran abandoned an atomic weapons drive in 2003.
"All options are on the table to protect our assets," Bush said when asked about the confrontation between US and Iranian vessels.
"We have made it clear publicly and they know our position and that is that there will be serious consequences if they attack our ships, pure and simple. My advice to them is don't do it."
Tehran and Washington have given sharply differing accounts of what transpired between their navies in the key waterway for world energy supplies, with an Iranian commander accusing the Pentagon of "clumsily" fabricating video footage claiming to show Iranian speedboats harassing US ships.
"The pictures that the Pentagon broadcast of the naval incident are file pictures and the voices have all been fabricated," the Fars news agency quoted a senior commander in the Revolutionary Guards as saying.
The Pentagon released a video and audio tape on Tuesday that it said confirmed US charges that Iranian speedboats swarmed around US warships in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday and radioed a threat to blow them up.
"The voices and pictures broadcast by the Pentagon about the latest incident have been fabricated so clumsily that the pictures and voices in the video are not even synchronized," the Guards commander said.
"That fact that it is a fake is clear to all."